The scheduling process used by routing/rating/scheduling (RR&S) and optimization can optionally use delivery schedules that are not defined in Transportation Manager.
Currently, there is just one external delivery schedule this is supported: CarrierConnect from Southern Motor Carriers.
Configuration for external delivery schedules uses the same infrastructure as external rating engines. When Scheduling Method for a Tariff Service is "External Delivery Schedule", the tariff service will be cross-referenced to an External Engine Version ID where the Engine Type for the corresponding external engine is "Delivery Schedule".
Utilization of external delivery schedules requires a separate license agreement with the schedule provider.
External delivery schedules cannot be used in conjunction with trips or multi-stop loads. These limitations also apply for internal delivery schedules (delivery schedules defined in Transportation Manager).
When the Scheduling Mode for a tariff service is "External Delivery Schedule", the specified External Delivery Schedule Engine Version and the applicable carrier SCAC will be used to access CarrierConnect and retrieve data for scheduling.
Users are allowed to create and modify versions for the CarrierConnect delivery schedule engine but cannot create an additional engine where Engine Type is "Delivery Schedule".
Accessing CarrierConnect is very similar to accessing RateWare since these two engines are both from Southern Motor Carriers and the RateWare Version data can be directly used by CarrierConnect.
Scheduling Method for a tariff service cannot be "External Delivery Schedule" for customer specific tariffs or either types of planning tariff. Since a carrier SCAC is required to access the external distance engine and these tariffs do not refer to a carrier, they are incompatible with the only supported external delivery schedule engine.
From CarrierConnect, the Number of Transit Days will be retrieved. If a valid value is not returned for Number of Transit Days, then that route will fail RR&S. Since CarrierConnect does not provide pickup or delivery windows and does not include holidays or weekends in the Number of Transit Days it returns, scheduling will write back the pickup and delivery windows with the earliest times that work for the intersection of: